The basic procedure for processing color photographic material includes, in general, a color-development step and a desilvering step. In the color-development step, the exposed silver halide in a color photographic material is reduced with a color-developing agent to yield silver, while the oxidized color-developing agent is reacted with a coupler to give a color image. In the desilvering step, the silver formed in the previous color-developing step is oxidized by the action of an oxidizing agent (which is generally called a "bleaching agent") and then dissolved by the action of a complexing agent for silver irons (which is generally called a "fixing agent"). After the desilvering step, the thus processed color photographic material may have a color image only.
The desilvering step is conducted either in a two-bath system using a bleaching agent-containing bleaching bath and a fixing agent-containing fixing bath or in a one-bath system using a bleach-fixing bath containing both bleaching agent and fixing agent.
A practical development procedure includes various auxiliary steps, in addition to the above-mentioned basic steps, for the purpose of maintaining the photographic and physical quality of the images formed and of improving the storage stability of the images formed. For instance, such auxiliary steps are conducted using a film-hardening bath, a stopping bath, an image-stabilizing bath and a rinsing bath.
In accordance with the method of the present invention, the term "processing bath having a fixing ability" indicates both the fixing bath and bleach-fixing bath. As the fixing agent for the bath having a fixing ability, thiosulfates which are excellent in fixing capacity and are advantageous in view of their cost are generally used.
On the other hand, in the bleaching step, ferric complexes (for example, aminopolycarboxylic acid iron (III) complexes, especically (ethylenediaminetetraacetato) iron (III) complex) are essentially used in view of the requirements of rapid and simplified processing and of prevention of environmental pollution.
However, ferric complexes are relatively poor in oxidizability and are insufficient in bleaching power. Accordingly, when they are used for bleaching or bleach-fixing a low-sensitivity silver halide color photographic material containing essentially a silver chlorobromide emulsion, the intended object can generally be attained. However, when they are used for processing a high-sensitivity silver halide color photographic material, which essentially contains a silver chlorobromide emulsion or a silver iodobromide emulsion and which has been color-sensitized, especially a picture-taking color reversal photographic material or picture-taking color negative photographic material which contains a silver-rich emulsion, the bleaching capacity is not satisfactory; desilvering is insufficient and a long time is required for bleaching.
As a means of avoiding these deficiences, a method of using a bleaching agent combination of (1, 3-diaminopropanetetraacetato) iron (III) complex and (ethylenediaminetetraacetato) iron (III) complex and having an excellent bleaching power is known, as described in JP-A-62-222252 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
However, it has been found that when a color photographic material is processed with a processing solution having a fixing ability and containing a thiosulfate, immediately after being processed with a bleaching solution containing the (1, 3-diaminopropanetetraacetato) iron (III) complex, the fixation is retarded and cannot be completed within a determined period of time. Such retardation of fixation is a "fixation insufficiency", which is undesirable.
In a case that aminopolycarboxylic acid which produces a comopound, such as (1,3-diaminopropanetetracetato)iron (III) complex, having a low stability constant in binding to iron (III) is used, the compound causes a remarkable bleaching fog on a photosensitive material and in sufficiency in recoloration of cyan dye, although it has a high bleaching ability.
In addition to such retardation of fixation, another serious problem is that the surface of the photographic material processed is stained.
In order to overcome such problems, Fuji Film Processing Manual, CN-16 Processing (October, 1985) has proposed a method where a photographic material is, after processing, fully rinsed or washed with water to remove the components of the bleaching solution from the photographic material processed. Although this method is effective to some degree, this interferes with rapid processing and additionally the number of the necessary processing bath must be increased. Accordingly, such a method is not suitable for use in a mini-laboratory system where rapid processability, small installation space and low processing cost are required.